[Leica] Re: 50s Harvard in perspective

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

United States Cultural History
1950-1959

Facts About This Decade
151,325,798 people in the United States in 1950
In 1950 10.3% of the population was foreign born.
In 1955 the approximate percentage of persons 25 and older with a  
high school degree or higher was 34%.
Harvard College Tuition 1955 $5,500.
In 1950 there were 19.1 million veterans in civilian life.
Between 1950-1959 there were approximately 700 executions under civil  
authority.
In 1950 there were 118 state and federal prisoners per every 100,000  
people.
Approximately 15,000 new books were published in 1955.
Teenage slang from the fifties
Cool was the word used most to approve of something.
To cool it was to relax, take it easy.
Girls who liked something might say it was neat; something a little  
bit offbeat might be kooky.
Teens who enjoyed a really funny joke might say it fractured them;  
something that was easy was no sweat.
Man, cat, and baby were terms of address for anyone, male or female.
If someone went crazy or out of control, he had wigged out or gone  
off the deep end.
To punk out was to be a coward.



And in 1950 a brand new Leica IIIf with a 50mm Summitar cost $180 at  
a duty free airport shop.
In 1954 a just introduced M3 with a 50mm Summicron cost $270 in that  
airport shop.

Larry Z